A Mayo barman who refused to serve at a lock-in has won €3,000 for unfair dismissal
The former employee was told to ‘f**k off’ by the owner of Paddy’s Bar in Kiltimagh.
A PUB IN Mayo has been ordered to pay €3,000 to a barman who claimed he was sacked for refusing to serve punters during a lock-in.
In a recent Labour Court case, Derry O’Sullivan – a former part-time barman at Paddy’s Bar in Kiltimagh town – told the court that he was fired by owner Joe Mallee after refusing to sell drinks to customers after closing time.
When giving evidence to the court, O’Sullivan said that on 3 January 2016, two men had ordered drinks at about 2am, an hour after the bar had stopped serving.
He said Mallee had told a junior bar attendant to serve the punters, but O’Sullivan – who was on manager duty that night – told her not to.
After the bar had cleared, Mallee asked O’Sullivan why the customers hadn’t been served, the court heard.
The barman said he responded that it was too late and, as bar manager and nominated licensee, he was under pressure not to serve drink at that hour having been contacted by gardaí over the issue.
O’Sullivan told the court that Mallee was annoyed with him and said, “You’re no good to me, you’re fired.”
Gardaí
Representing Paddy’s Bar, solicitor Declan Hynes said that Mallee had received a phone call from O’Sullivan the next day to say that he was not returning to work and wouldn’t give back certain paperwork and the keys to the pub.
Hynes said that, as a result, his client was forced to close the pub for three days to arrange to have all the locks changed – incurring substantial costs.
Kiltimagh, Co Mayo
When giving evidence, O’Sullivan denied that he had called Mallee the day after the incident. He told the court that it was his responsibility to organise paperwork associated with the running of the bar because Mallee resided in England.
O’Sullivan said that on the night in question he had all the paperwork in his car. He said that he was owed €1,500 by the pub and wouldn’t return the documents until he received his payment.
However, when gardaí became involved he returned the papers through his solicitor.
When Mallee addressed the court, he said that during the argument with O’Sullivan, he had told the barman to “fuck off” out of his sight, but denied that he had dismissed him.
He said O’Sullivan had simply walked out that night and he had not seen him again until the Labour Court hearing.
However, in cross-examination, Mallee accepted that he had received a letter from Gilmartin & Murphy Solicitors, written on behalf of O’Sullivan, that said he had been “summarily dismissed”.
The letter was sent to Mallee’s legal representative and he accepted that he had not told his solicitor to dispute the statement. He said that in hindsight it was a mistake not to clear up the point at the time.
Ruling
Mallee said O’Sullivan phoned him the next day looking for the €1,500 payment in exchange for the paperwork. He said that he did not take the opportunity to tell O’Sullivan that he was not sacked.
In its ruling, the Labour Court said that “by his words and actions”, it believed Mallee had dismissed O’Sullivan.
The court found he had made “no effort” to make it clear to the barman that he wasn’t sacked and had only made “strenuous attempts to organise the return of the pub’s paperwork, including involving the gardaí”.
The court said that it was satisfied that there were no substantial grounds justifying the dismissal. As a result, Paddy’s Bar was ordered to pay €3,000 in compensation to O’Sullivan to make up for lost wages.
